Ghost Shrimp Eating Hair Algae?

So, I have a slight problem with hair algae. It isn’t really causing any issues (as far as I can tell), but it is a bit of an eyesore. Because of this, I went looking for creatures that would eat it. According to this website (), ghost shrimp will eat the hair algae. My mother has some hair algae and some ghost shrimp, the latter doing nothing about the former. Later in the article, it mentions that the shrimp do not like being off of the substrate and would thus not eat any floating stuff, which is perhaps her problem. Have ghost shrimp done anything for your hair algae? And do you have any tips for getting the hair algae down from the surface? Thank you for any help!

 

Amano shrimp will eat hair algae.

 

My mother has some of those as well and they have done nothing. Is there something special you have to do to get them to eat it?

 

My mother has some of those as well and they have done nothing. Is there something special you have to do to get them to eat it?

They key is they must be hungry so don’t feed them. And from my experience you need a mini army to do something lol.

 

Hmm, sounds difficult since I have other fish and they would still need to eat.

 

Hmm, sounds difficult since I have other fish and they would still need to eat.

Since the shrimp are bottom feeders they shouldn’t even have a change to get the pellets the other fish eat. If there’s food going on the ground and not being eaten then the tanks is being over fed

 

Oh, duh, that makes sense. For some reason, my mind didn’t make that connection. Would I just not feed the shrimp anything?

 

Oh, duh, that makes sense. For some reason, my mind didn’t make that connection. Would I just not feed the shrimp anything?

Yeah once they get hungry they will start looking around for food and will start eating away at your algae. Doing a blackout every other day for a week will also help get rid of it. But once they finish eating the algae they will appreciate a nice treat like a Piece of zucchini or something

 

Interesting. My ghost shrimp love to swim and will grab fish flashes flakes floating in the water. Since they're largely carnivores, hair algae may not be their favorite snack. Amano shrimp will eat it; but they're a bit more expensive.

 

Huh, that's odd. The article I found was saying that Hair Algae was their favorite.

When I created this thread, it appears that it made two copies. Is there any way I could merge them?

Good to know. What's a blackout? Is that where I cut the lights?

 

I have seen them eat algae. They'll pick at algae wafers and the biofilm on my driftwood but they're never tank cleaners, in my opinion

 

And amanos would be better?

 

Yes. I had diatoms growing on top of my little temple decor a few months ago. It was completely brown one night, and when I woke up the next day, it was spotless. They weren't always so efficient, but that was their most amazing feat.

 

Wow, that is impressive! I might have to get some of those.

 

I depends on what species you have. most want to live in a mess of plants and eat what ever they can get a hold of.

 

Different species of shrimp or algae?

 

Shrimp

 

That’s what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.